Low Cost Airlines Looking Forward to more Cheap Flights ot Asian & Australian Market

Add caption

AUSTRALIAN TRAVELERS  can look forward to more cheap flights to Asia as low-cost carriers expand across the region. Aviation experts believe low-cost Indonesian airline Lion Air will launch flights to Australia in the next few years, while Malaysian airline AirAsia X has plans to double its flights to and from Australia.
Center for Asia Pacific Aviation executive chairman said low-cost carriers will dominate long-haul travel in Asia by the end of the decade and he would be surprised if Lion Air wasn't flying to Australia by then.  "A lot of these aircraft can also fly pretty long distances," he told the CAPA Australia Pacific Asia Summit in Sydney.  He said by the end of this year AirAsia X will be the fourth largest foreign airline in Australia.  The carrier flies from Sydney, Melbourne, the Gold Coast and Perth, providing links to Asian hot spots such as Bali and Phuket via its Kuala Lumpur hub.

AirAsia X CEO said the airline was planning to double the frequency of its flights to and from Australia by next year.  "Australia is a third of our business," he said.  Australians may also have the choice of more stopover destinations in Asia en route to Europe, with Bandung in Indonesia potentially becoming a new hub in addition to Chinese cities including Guangzhou, where up-and-coming carrier China Southern is based.
But Asia faces strong competition from Middle Eastern carriers Emirates and Eithad Airways.
Emirates began a partnership with Qantas earlier this year, with flights to Europe with the Australian carrier now going via Dubai instead of Singapore as they did under its longstanding relationship with Singapore Airlines.  Abu Dhabi-based Etihad, which has a partnership with Virgin Australia, has also revealed ambitious plans to begin flights from Perth, boost flights from Melbourne and Brisbane and fly an Airbus A380 aircraft from Sydney and Melbourne.  It will also build premium lounges at Sydney and Melbourne Airports next year.  The growth in airlines coming Down Under was also good news for Australian tourism.
"We're an island nation and not a lot of people swim here," Tourism Australian managing director Andrew McEvoy told the summit.  Mr McEvoy said the growth of low-cost carriers in the region had been "phenomenal".  "It's been dominated by Jetstar but AirAsia has come in quite aggressively," he said.
"Lion Air and those sorts of carriers are also looking at Australia very, very closely.
"A lot of the capacity from Australia has been to Bali but we're seeing real growth from Jakarta. "I think Jakarta has ambitions to be a kind of hub to Europe as well over time. " Overall, Mr Harbison said airfares were likely to stay low thanks to the falling Australian dollar.

Cheap Flights of Southwest Airlines

Add caption

The U.S. Department of Transportation has fined Southwest Airlines $200,000 for advertising Cheap Flights but not making enough - or in some cases any - seats available.

During its  "Luv a Fare Sale" in January, Southwest Airlines offered one-way tickets on Valentine's Day 2013 for less than $100 out of hundreds of cities, including Mitchell Airport in Milwaukee, Chicago Midway and Minneapolis St. Paul.

But on a significant number of routes, the deal only applied to 1% to 2% of the seats -- about three or four passengers per flight. That's not a "reasonable" number of seats, the federal government said.

Southwest Airlines During another sale, Southwest advertised $66 one-way tickets from Dallas to Branson, Mo., in March, but no seats were available at all.

"By advertising fares for which a reasonable number of seats were not available and advertising fares that were not available at all, Southwest violated the full fare advertising rule and engaged in prohibited unfair and deceptive practices," the DOT said in a news release this week.

Southwest told the DOT that its Luv a Fare Sale was available on 786 routes, and that the fact that none of the $66 fares were available was because of a technical glitch.

"Consumers should be able to trust that the price they see advertised is the price they'll pay for a seat," U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement.

Beautiful, Blissful & Bizarre - cheap-flight-4u.com Takes a Garden Tour

Add caption

 BOSTON, MA--(Marketwired - Aug 6, 2013) - When people hear the word garden, many are likely to conjure up images of flowers, fruits and vegetables. Others may think of gardens as a personal hobby, while some may imagine public gardens such as Central Park or Versailles in France. The travel experts at cheap-flight-4u.com, the online leader in finding and publishing travel deals, have discovered another dimension in the world of gardens and invite you to take stroll through their Top 10 Unusual Gardens from around the world.
We kick off the garden tour below with five breathtaking yet quirky gardens from cheap-flight-4u.com's Top 10 Unusual Gardens:

Add caption

Las Pozas, Xilitla, Mexico - A "Surrealist Xanadu" in the heart of the Mexican jungle, Las Pozas (the Pools) combines man-made structures with exotic flowers, native plants, waterfalls and pools to create a strangely harmonious and peaceful garden. The gardens are the creation of eccentric English poet and artist Edward James, who bought the 80-acre former coffee plantation in the mid-1940s in an attempt to create his own Garden of Eden. Between 1949 and 1984, James built a total of 36 surreal concrete sculptures and structures on the site with names such as the House with a Roof like a Whale and the Staircase to Heaven. As of 2007, the gardens are maintained by the Fondo Xilitla foundation.

Add caption

The Garden of Cosmic Speculation, Dumfries, Scotland - Science and mathematics plus sculptures and landscaping equal one fascinating garden of cosmic proportions. The Garden of Cosmic Speculation is a 30-acre garden created by landscape architect and architectural theorist Charles Jencks at his home, Portrack House in Southwest Scotland. Inspired by science and mathematics, the garden's sculptures and landscaping are suitably based on everything from black holes to fractals. There is also a distinct oriental influence thanks to Jencks' late wife Maggie Keswick, an expert on Asian garden design. While the garden is private, it does open up to the public one day a year as part of Scotland's Gardens Scheme and raises money for Maggie's Centres, a cancer care charity.

Add caption

Rock Garden of Chandigarh, India - The saying goes that one man's junk is another man's treasure, but in the case of the Rock Garden, a city's junk was transformed into everyone's treasure. Public servant Nek Chand began creating his masterpiece in 1957 from cast-off industrial and home waste he collected from demolition sites across Chandigarh. However, his chosen site was actually conservation land with a building restriction. He managed to keep his construction secret for 18 years and, when the authorities finally uncovered the garden, it had grown into 12 acres of courtyards filled with hundreds of sculptures. Thanks to public support, the garden was saved from demolition, and Chand was awarded a salary and a workforce of 50 so he could complete his vision. Today, Nek Chand's Rock Garden is spread over a massive 40 acres.

 

Add caption

 A French Kiss in Akaroa, Christchurch, New Zealand - Held every year late in the New Zealand summer, the Ellerslie International Flower Show attracts a global audience of garden designers and garden lovers who come to see the best of garden design, gardening trends and new products. Founded in Auckland in 1994, the show moved to its current (and fitting) home in Hagley Park, Christchurch, New Zealand's Garden City, in 2008. In 2013, landscape designer Ben Hoyle picked up his sixth Gold Medal for his sunken oasis called "A French Kiss in Akaroa" that featured a lounge pit filled with pillows where visitors could take in a unique view from below the waterline. The inspiration for the garden came from the history of the French settlement in the South Island town of Akaroa. Kate Hillier, exhibition manager at the Ellerslie International Flower Show said the garden, along with several others, had been donated to New Brighton -- a coastal suburb in Christchurch that was badly damaged in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake. "We look forward to seeing the garden live on, brightening the days of people living in such a seriously damaged area," Hillier said.

Add caption

Forestiere Underground Gardens, Fresno, California, United States - Forestiere Underground Gardens are the creation of Sicilian immigrant Baldasare Forestiere, who built the garden over 40 years from 1906 until his death in 1946. Inspired by a childhood fascination with the catacombs in Rome, Forestiere built the Underground Garden as an escape from the scorching Fresno summer. Today a listed California Historical Landmark, the three-level underground structure is a network of rooms and passageways and features a summer and winter bedroom, kitchen, fish pond, a parlor complete with fireplace, and several subterranean gardens. Many of the garden's plants are more than 100 years old and, thanks to the underground construction, are protected from frost over the winter months. The garden is home to a variety of fruit-bearing trees and vines from citrus to berries that were planted at different times, so the trees bloom one after the other giving a lengthened growing season.

Add caption

Rounding out our list of bizarre gardens around the world are: Arctic-alpine Botanic Garden, Tromsø, Norway; Bookworm Garden, Sheboygan, WI, USA; Tarot Garden (Giardino dei Tarocchi), Tuscany, Italy; Jardin Majorelle, Marrakech, Morocco; and Poison Gardens, Northumberland, England. To read the complete details and view stunning images of cheap-flight-4u.com's Top 10 Unusual Gardens, visit www.cheap-flight-4u.com.

Add caption

Momondo Group is an online travel media and technology company that is driven by the belief that an open world is a better world. The group now serves travel search and inspiration to over 13 million visitors a month -- plus 6 million travel newsletter subscribers -- via its cheap-flight-4u.com (www.cheap-flight-4u.com)  brands.

Add caption

Skygate began the sourcing of complex air-travel data in 1992, while cheap-flight-4u.com pioneered the online comparison of flight deals for users in 1996 and momondo launched meta-search in the Nordic countries in 2006.  The Group has offices in London, Copenhagen, Boston and Toronto, with a consumer base across more than 20 core international markets but users all over the world.

Fastjet Airlines Operates Cheap International Flights For Africa.

Add caption

Fastjet airline offer Flights From Tanzania, which gained permission to fly into several international hubs on Friday. For a continent whose economic growth has been stifled by a lack of cross-border flight connections, the news is encouraging for those seeking Africa's economic development -- but it remains to be seen if Fastjet can make good on its ambitious plans to expand service in the near future. Fastjet bills itself as a no-frills, low-cost carrier, but it aspires to be a pan-continental service. Currently, the airline offers domestic flights between the Tanzanian cities Kilimanjaro, Mwanza, Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam. Now, if all goes as planned, the carrier will soon offer international flights to South Africa, Zambia and Rwanda.  Fastjet began flying in 2012 after acquiring the Kenya-based air carrier Fly540, but the expected transfer of services hasn't gone smoothly. Fly540 still operates under its own name in Kenya. Debt settlement conflicts and licensing disagreements created obstacles for the transfer, but they were finally settled with a memorandum of understanding in April.

Add caption

Fastjet wants to run domestic flights within South Africa, and it was in talks to acquire the assets of failed airline 1time. However, those efforts were put on hold to allow Fastjet to focus on its international aspirations.  Given its short and rocky history, Fastjet's attempts to go international will be watched closely. But CEO Ed Winter is optimistic.  "This is a monumental day in Fastjet's history, and it brings us closer to our goal of becoming Africa's first pan-continental low-cost airline," Winter said to the BBC. "We have expended huge effort over the past six months in obtaining these rights, and we can only thank the government and population of Tanzania, who have lobbied hard to allow us to gain access to the bilateral rights to operate to these countries."

Gaining the bilateral air transfer agreements necessary to operate international flights to South Africa, Zambia and Rwanda are indeed a significant achievement. Africa suffers from a lack of international flights within the continent, due in large part to restrictive governmental policies that have stifled the aviation industry there. Taxes on fuel and airport usage fees have dampened demand by making air travel prohibitively costly, which is why a cheap carrier like Fastjet might be a perfect fit -- if it's able to stay aloft. The company posted revenues of $21.1 million and a pretax loss of $55.3 million for the 18 months ended in December 2012.

Such early losses aren't unheard of in this capital-intensive industry, and Fastjet could very well turn to profitability if it's able to seize the opportunities presented by its new international rights.

Cheap Tickets of Vietnam Airlines on Vinh Hanoi Route

 

Add caption

Vietnam-Airline  has launched a series of Cheap Tickets on Vinh Hanoi Route. Customers booking a flight on this route have the chance to get big offers.

http://www.cheap-flight-4u.com  is the official website for booking lowest inclusive fares of Vietnam Airlines. The website, with the 24-hour service system, serves passengers with daily flights from/ to main cities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Hue, Danang, Nha Trang, Da Lat, Phu Quoc, Con Dao, etc.
The website also provides international flights of Vietnam Airlines all over the world. In Indochina, Vietnam Airlines has flights to Laos, Cambodia including Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Vientiane, Luang Prabang. In Asia, there are daily flights to South East Asia and North East Asia. Besides, there are daily flights from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to Melbourne and Sydney (Australia). At the present time, http://www.cheap-flight-4u.com  is also selling Air Tickets for direct flights to many destinations in Europe including Frankfurt, Moscow, London, and Paris.

The main focus is domestic route, especially flights from/ to Hanoi. The website has launched a series of cheap tickets on Vinh  Hanoi route. Customers booking a flight on this route have the chance to get big offers. The ticket is 50% cheaper than usual. Moreover, passengers get great deal when booking hotels or tours in Hanoi. As for Ho Chi Minh City  Hanoi, the normal price for an economy class and one-way ticket is 1,685,000 VND (82 USD). When customers booking tickets, the automatic online system will offer discounts for each air ticket.

To have more information on cheap tickets, please visit http://www.cheap-flight-4u.com.

Air New Zealand Turns Sardine Class to Cuddle Class

Add caption

From the Hobbit Airline comes another cutely-named product that promises to turn Cattle Class into something a lot more pleasant.  The Economy Sky Couch, nicknamed Cuddle Class, is a specially designed row of three seats that creates a flat, flexible space for adults to stretch out in and children to clamber over (and sleep on).  The Sky Couch was first introduced on Air New Zealand’s daily B777-300 service from Auckland - Los Angeles - London in  2011. It’s now available on the Boeing 777-300 aircraft (NZ1 and NZ2 daily services) between London Heathrow, Los Angeles and Auckland.  Each 777-300 aircraft has 20 rows of Sky Couch. They’re located on the window sides of the plane in Zone C (the first of two Economy Class zones) and there are five 777-300s in Air New Zealand’s fleet.

Add caption

The length of the Economy Sky Couch with the side wall armrest up measures 1.55m (5 ft 1 in). The depth of the cushion and leg rest combined is about 74cm (29 in) and there’s a mattress topper, soft blanket and two springy pillows.  As far as fares are concerned, a couple, say, buy their seats at full price and the third seat costs about half price. It’s two-and-a-half times an Economy fare, cheaper than Business Class. And it makes a family holiday to New Zealand more affordable.  Passengers can also upgrade to Sky Couch (on a one-way basis) from £79 (for a family of three) or from £169 (couples) to Los Angeles.

Earlier today, Cheap flights had a quick look and a lie-down on the Economy Sky Couch. It’s certainly roomier than we have been used to in Economy Class and looks like it would revolutionise a 25-hour flight to NZ - definitely not Sardine Class.  tend to have a travel element (or in some cases, are almost entirely travel oriented. We guess that’s because people who like to set themselves goals are the kind of people who enjoy exploring the world.  While it’s a useful exercise for determining the places you want to see and the activities you want to do, there is one glaring problem with bucket lists.  The danger of writing down your hopes and dreams is that those things will remain just that hopes and dreams. Bucket lists become an excuse to wait  to procrastinate. They invite the mentality, I’ll go there do that  sometime in the future.

Add caption

Travelers may be better off following the One Place philosophy. On his blog The Art of Non-Conformity, entrepreneur, life-hacker and passionate traveler Chris Guillebeau challenges readers to think of the one place in the world they’d like to visit.  There are only two rules. You have to pick one place, and it has to be somewhere you haven’t been yet.  The idea is to have focus; i.e. pick one place, set a deadline, then form a plan to make visiting the destination by that time a reality.  Guillebeau points out that even the most challenging destinations on earth are realistically reachable for less than £1,700.  If you set a two-year deadline, and your budget is £1,700, that means you’d need to save £71 a month. For alcohol drinkers, that works out as around two less nights out a month.  Guillebeau says taking the first single action is key to the plan. He says: You don’t need to buy a ticket or anything else.  Just go to the bookstore and check out the travel section. Read the travel guide for your place in the café.  If you prefer, look for books about your one place at the library, or ask someone who has been there to tell you about it.   The sheer size and grandeur of a bucket list can be overwhelming. By taking things one step at a time you’re more likely to achieve your goal(s).  

Wyndham Hotels

Add caption

Wyndham Reveals Plan for First UAE Hotel
Wyndham Hotel Group, the world's largest hotel company with about 7,380 hotels, has revealed plans for its first property in the UAE. The announcement follows the signing of an agreement with Sigma III Limited, a subsidiary of British-owned developer The First Group, to manage a 33-story building in Dubai Marina.
Currently under development, the Wyndham Dubai Marina is expected to open within the next three years with 497 guest rooms including 251 luxurious suites. The hotel will also comprise nearly 6,800 square feet of food and beverage outlets, including all-day-dining and specialty restaurants, as well as a coffee shop, an executive lounge and a bar. Alongside meetings and conference space, the hotel will also offer almost 2,500 square feet of spa and leisure facilities including a gym and outdoor pool with a pool bar. "We're very excited to be bringing our namesake Wyndham Hotels and Resorts brand to Dubai, following its successful introduction to the region through the spectacular Wyndham Grand Regency Doha," said Rui Barros, senior vice president and managing director Europe, Middle East and Africa, Wyndham Hotel Group.  "I have no doubt that Wyndham Dubai Marina will be another superb addition to the brand, which we are already growing in key cities throughout the Middle East."  In addition to the Wyndham Grand Regency Doha, which opened in 2011, Wyndham Hotel Group has already announced the development of two Wyndham Hotels and Resorts properties in the Middle East.  The Wyndham Grand Manama and Wyndham Grand Riyadh are both slated to open by the end of next summer, adding to a Middle East portfolio which already consists of more than 30 hotels and over 6,100 rooms.  "The First Group is proud to be collaborating with such a renowned name in the global hotel industry on one of our most prestigious hotel developments to date," said Danny Lubert, co-founder and joint chairman of The First Group.  "We are excited to be partnering with Wyndham Hotel Group on the first Wyndham Hotels and Resorts property in the UAE."

Add caption

Wyndham Inks Deal for Saudi Economy Hotels
Wyndham Hotel Group has announced the signing of an exclusive development agreement for the Days Inn brand in Saudi Arabia with Riyada International Hotels and Resorts.  Riyada International is currently the master franchisee for Wyndham's Ramada brand in the Gulf kingdom.  The signing of the deal for 10 hotels was announced at the headquarters of the Saudi Commission of Tourism and Antiquities in Riyadh.
The development of the Days Inn portfolio in Saudi Arabia will be spread over the next seven years, officials said in a statement. Rui Barros, Wyndham Hotel Group's senior vice president and managing director for Europe, Middle East and Africa, said: "We are delighted to expand our relationship with Riyada International Hotels.  "This brand has exceptional growth potential in this market as it is perfectly suited to the growing number of travelers seeking comfort and quality accommodation without a mid-market or upscale price tag."
Muhammad Al-Amir, founder and managing director of Riyada International Hotels and Resorts, added: "We have worked in partnership with Wyndham Hotel Group for the last seven years to successfully build the Ramada brand within the kingdom.  "To now work together to launch Days Inn, another leading global brand, represents a significant milestone for us."  Days Inn is a leading global brand in the economy segment with more guest rooms than any other economy brand in the world and over 1,830 hotels worldwide.
Existing Days Inn hotels in the Middle East include two hotels in Jordan and one in Bahrain.
Barros added: "We are fully committed to growing our presence in the Gulf, both through the expansion of our existing, trusted brands such as Ramada and Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, as well as through the introduction of new brands such as Super 8 and Days Inn, which cater to currently under-served segments in the region."

Add caption

Wyndham Chief Brands Top Dubai Hotels
The head of the world’s largest hospitality group has branded Dubai’s most grandiose hotels as monstrous and said he is not interested in building such properties.  Eric Danziger said Wyndham Group, which has nearly 7,400 hotels with 15 brands across the world, was planning to rapidly boost its presence in the Gulf, particularly in Dubai and Saudi Arabia, but he would not be lured by opulence, instead choosing to fill a gap in the middle and lower ends of the market.  I think the lion’s share of the properties [in Dubai] are big, monstrous Atlantises, Jumeirahs and all that. They’re wonderful but not everybody around the world can afford that so we need a good balance, Danziger, who is Wyndham Group CEO, told Arabian Business in an interview.  I have no ego problem with having hotels in the market underneath the super luxury market; we’re okay with that. We never want to do a hotel that we can’t say is going to be a success just to add another hotel, it’s not our culture, so we’re working very hard with a lot of people with a lot of hotels.
Danziger said he was excited by the prospect of Dubai doubling its visitor numbers to 20m by 2020 and Wyndham was committed to participating in the growth. However, it would not be afraid to bring some of the group’s value brands, such as Days Inn and Super 8, alongside its most prestigious, Wyndham Hotel, he said.  Dubai currently is heavily saturated with five-star property and that’s wonderful because there’s a five-star demand but some part of the 20m people is not going to be five stars, he says. So we have four-star brands, we have three-star brands, we have two-star brands.  My instinct would be that more of our product coming in, while there will be several Wyndhams and Ramada Plazas, we’ll see some of those other mid-scale ones too because there’ll be a desire for more affordable properties for people.  The company is already flexing its muscle in Saudi Arabia’s economy sector, with a contract to build 10 Days Inn roadside motels in seven years and 20 Super 8s in 10 years.  Wyndham is expected to play a major role in providing for the rapidly expanding tourism sector in the kingdom, which is taking advantage of the hundreds of thousands of Muslim pilgrims who make the annual voyage there as well as its booming domestic tourism as nationals become wealthier. The company also has announced its first five-star Wyndham Hotel in Dubai, to be built in Dubai Marina.